Chesapeake

For a second year the KayaXpedition festival brings a weekend of kayaking, canoeing and stand-up paddle boarding on Chesapeake's waterways. The June 8-9 festival is part of the city's 50 t h anniversary celebrations. Guided tours, instruction and demonstrations will be offered. . Register online at http://www.KayaXpedition.com until 5 p.m. Friday; or on-site (cash or check only) at Oak Grove Park and Great Bridge Lock Park. All levels, from beginners to experts, are welcome.

Thomas Nelson Community College ranked fifth in the Military Times' Best for Vets Career and Technical Colleges listing. The rankings evaluated schools that responded to the military-orientated publication's survey of more than 100 questions and indicated that they were career or technical institutions. A similar review of more traditional colleges and universities is expected next month. Of Thomas Nelson's 16,000 students, 1 out of 4 reported being active-duty, reservist, veteran or military dependent, according to a statement from the college.

CHESAPEAKE—Two men were killed early Sunday in Chesapeake after a party turned deadly. Police were called to the 4000 block of Scotia Drive around 3:46 a.m. to a report of shots fired. The victims have been identified as Dimitri B. McNeil, 24 of the 300 block of Holly Glen Drive in Chesapeake and Leo Askew,23, of the 70 t h block of Grady Crescent in Chesapeake. The case remains under investigation. Police are asking anyone with information to call the Crime Line at 1-888-LOCK-U-UP.

What's a restored Chesapeake Bay worth to Virginia? Nearly $50 billion a year. That's the dollar value the Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF) came up with in a new report that for the first time takes a look at the economic benefits of a healthy watershed. Economists and scientists first calculated the current dollar value of such things as commercial and recreational fishing, agriculture, flood control, property values, public health, clean water and clean air, then projected the economic benefits that would accrue if the polluted estuary were restored to healthy levels.

A section of Taylor Road, in the Western Branch section of Chesapeake, will be closed for much of Saturday while work crews repair a water line. The road will be closed between Bruin and Dunedin drives from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Saturday, the city announced today.

Police say a plane went down near the Chesapeake airport around 2:30 p.m. in the 4400 block of Ballahack Road in a field. The crash occurred 1.5 miles off the road. The pilot was pronounced dead at the scene. For more on this story, visit http://tinyurl.com/3ampcos.

Police in Chesapeake are investigating a bank robbery that occurred on Tuesday, and detectives have released a surveillance image of the suspect. The robbery occurred shortly after 1 p.m. at the Chartway Federal Credit Union at 4300 Portsmouth Boulevard. Police spokesman Gus Mojica said the suspect implied that he had a weapon and fled with an undisclosed amount of cash in the direction of Gum Road. The suspect is described as a black male in his 30s or early 40s, about 6-foot and 200 pounds.

HAMPTON - Hampton Police arrested a 23-year-old man late Tuesday following a vehicle chase that extended into Chesapeake and ended with the suspect crashing. The incident began at around 10:19 p.m. Tuesday when Hampton Police Communications received a 911 call reporting a robbery at a 7-Eleven store in the 2600 block of Kecoughtan Road. According to a press release, officers learned that the suspect entered the business, displayed a handgun and demanded money. The suspect took an undisclosed amount of money and fled on foot.

Police in Chesapeake are investigating two sexual assaults that occurred in the same neighborhood earlier this week. The incidents occurred on Cromwell Avenue on Monday night and then on Fontana Avenue, about a block away, on Tuesday night. Police spokesman Gus Mojica said detectives do not know if the assaults were committed by the same man, but he said "both cases are similar in nature and occurred near each other. " The assault on Cromwell Avenue occurred around 9 p.m. Mojica said the victim was walking down the street and talking on a phone when she was knocked to the ground.

By Mark St. John Erickson, and merickson@dailypress.com | October 3, 2014

A century after the James Adams Floating Theatre presented its first performances in the waterfront hamlets of Hampton, Smithfield and Mathews, the sensational allure of the 132-foot-long traveling playhouse has mostly faded. But only rarely in the first dozen or so years after its debut tour in 1914 did the Chesapeake Bay showboat that inspired the best-selling book, the landmark Broadway musical and two Hollywood films play to anything less than a very eager house. A day or two after advance man W.H. Aldredge arrived at each stop - where he plastered the streets with posters and the newspapers with ads - the giant, two-story theater would ease up against the wharves with flags flying and trumpets blowing.

CHESAPEAKE - Ben Hardesty sits in the living room of his family's small brick farmhouse, his bare feet propped up. This room, he says, is where The Last Bison began. He strums gently on an undersized guitar that he has owned since he was 11 years old. It's still the one he uses to compose songs. This is the comfort zone for The Last Bison's lead vocalist, and it extends across the tree-lined street known as Bunch Walnuts Road, onto the grounds of the Triple R Ranch - the Christian camp where he has grown up. The Last Bison's new album, which comes out on Tuesday, was recorded at Triple R, in a small, cluttered A-frame structure known as The Wigwam.

Hampton Roads projects are among 45 throughout the Chesapeake Bay watershed chosen on Tuesday to receive a total of $9.8 million in grants for initiatives to help restore the historic estuary. The Virginia Institute of Marine Science in Gloucester Point was awarded $199,000 to create 15,000 square feet of marsh to reduce nutrients and sediment entering the bay, and the Middle Peninsula Planning District Commission is getting $200,000 to develop a grant and loan program to help homeowners build living shorelines.

Oysters filter nutrients and pollutants from the water - an important component in ongoing efforts to help restore the Chesapeake Bay by building up oyster habitats. But researchers are surprised by new evidence that shows mussels that attach to oyster reefs and shells can actually double the reef's filtration capacity. Such findings have implications for future restoration projects, they said, and for understanding the real-world benefits of diversity in oyster habitat and larger efforts to restore coastal ecosystems.

By Tara Bozick, tbozick@dailypress.com and TidewaterBiz | August 26, 2014

Monarch Bank, the second-largest community bank in Hampton Roads by deposits, plans to expand with a Peninsula headquarters next to the Whole Foods under construction at the Tech Center at Oyster Point. "We have a lot of clients on the Peninsula," Monarch CEO Brad E. Schwartz said. "As we grow, we just wanted to build a facility that could service them. " Chesapeake-based Monarch Bank signed a lease for 8,000 square feet in a planned three-story, 30,000-square-foot office building, said President and CEO John Lawson of W.M. Jordan Co., the primary developer behind Tech Center.

Priority Automotive has purchased Peninsula Honda dealership on the 4100 block of West Mercury Boulevard in Hampton. The Chesapeake-based company – which owns new and used-vehicle franchises in Hampton Roads, Richmond and Charlotte, N.C. – didn't disclose terms of the deal in a Wednesday news release announcing the purchase. But the statement says the Mercury Boulevard dealership will be re-opened as Priority Honda Hampton on March 18. The dealership will be Priority's first on the Peninsula, where president and CEO Dennis Ellmer said he has long wanted to establish a presence.

CHESAPEAKE — Police in Chesapeake are looking two men who are suspected in a shooting incident at a motel that sent the victim to a local hospital. Officer Justin Mathews said the incident occurred around 9:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Budget Lodge on Military Highway. The victim, identified only as an adult male, was transported to Sentara Norfolk General Hospital. There was no immediate word on his condition. Mathews said the suspects are described only as two black males in the early- to mid-20s, dressed all in dark clothing.

Salty … with sweetness and a smooth finish. That's the regional flavor of Tidewater oysters as they're now being touted in a new Virginia Oyster Trail campaign launched Tuesday by Gov. Terry McAuliffe, part of his long-term effort to build a "new Virginia economy. " The campaign is meant to connect Chesapeake Bay oysters with the watermen who harvest or farm them, the raw bars and restaurants that sell them, and the Virginia wines that can pair with them, the governor's office said.

Running: Andrew Eason , 17, and Hannah Glasgow , 16, both of Chesapeake, won the overall championships at the seventh annual Smart Smiles 5K in Newport News. Eason, a former Hickory High standout who will run as a freshman this season for Virginia Tech, completed the course in 16 minutes, 24 seconds, beating runner-up Victor Flemming, 35, of Smithfield by 5 seconds and Tabb High graduate Ryan Kent, 28, of Yorktown by 11 seconds. Glasgow, a current Hickory runner and tennis player, posted a time of 19:51, with Mercedes Castillo-D'Amico , 56, of Newport News second in 20:26 and Morgan Merritt , 13, of Newport News third in 20:56.